Sabathia loses perfect game in seventh

CC Sabathia wasn't sure.

There was near consensus, however, from his teammates.

Had Mother Nature not intervened with two short rain delays, the overwhelming opinion was that Sabathia would have thrown the fourth perfect game in Yankees history Tuesday night. Or at the very least, the 11th no-hitter (counting postseason).

Instead, Sabathia had to settle for his major league-leading 15th win in a 4-1 victory over the Mariners in front of 46,132 soaked and slightly disappointed fans at the Stadium.

"There was no doubt in my mind he was going to throw a no-hitter,'' said Eric Chavez, who returned to the lineup, starting at third. "He looked unhittable. It's too bad he didn't get the opportunity to go right through it.''

Brendan Ryan broke up Sabathia's perfect game with a line-drive single to left-center with one out in the seventh. Sabathia fell behind 2-and-0 before Ryan improved to 4-for-9 off the lefthander with his hit on a fastball.

"If I had to do over,'' Francisco Cervelli said, "I would have called for a curveball.''

For the Mariners (43-60), it was their 17th straight loss. The 1961 Phillies, with 23 consecutive defeats, hold the modern record. The 1988 Orioles hold the AL mark with 21.

The Yankees (61-40) stayed two games behind the Red Sox as Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira each hit his 28th home run and Mariano Rivera earned his 26th save.

Ryan's hit came an inning after the first rain delay, which lasted 30 minutes. Before the delay, Sabathia got Mike Carp for his seventh straight strikeout, the first out of the sixth.

"Those rain delays are tough,'' Teixeira said. "The first one is tough, but once the second one hit, it was just really tough for him to get out there. But you never know. No rain, he might have had a perfect game.''

Sabathia said "there was a little disappointment, but I was just focused on trying to continue to make pitches and not let that affect me.''

Sabathia (15-5, 2.56 ERA), who allowed just that one hit in seven innings and struck out a career-high 14, didn't play the "what if?" game.

"That's part of the game, it happens,'' he said of the delays. "You can't dwell on that.''

The Yankees struck out 18 Mariners, tying the franchise record set by Ron Guidry on June 17, 1978, against the Angels. However, following a return to the mound after the second delay -- this one lasting 14 minutes, before the Yankees batted in the seventh -- Sabathia walked the bases loaded with none out in the eighth while leading 3-0.

"After the first delay, I felt pretty good,'' Sabathia said. "After the second delay, I just lost my release point. I don't know if that was because of the delay. It was just one of those things.''

David Robertson, who has excelled in such situations, allowed one of the inherited runners to score but kept the damage there, striking out two.

Sabathia, unlike some pitchers, freely admits to thinking about having a no-hitter or perfect game. He'd come close before. He had a no-hit bid broken up with two outs in the eighth inning April 10, 2010, against the Rays in St. Petersburg. While with the Brewers in 2008, he threw a controversial one-hitter in Pittsburgh when many thought Sabathia should have been charged with an error on an Andy LaRoche infield hit.

"It's hard not to,'' Sabathia said. "You know you haven't pitched out of the stretch. Anybody who says they don't know is lying.''

Joe Girardi certainly was thinking about it.

"He was so sharp before the rain delay and I thought his slider got a little bit bigger after the rain delay,'' Girardi said. "I didn't think he was quite as sharp. But golly, for that five and a third, he was brilliant.''